Corporate Responsibility

Our Approach

At Merck, Corporate Responsibility refers to our Division’s commitment to advancing social and environmental responsibility throughout our Products, Operations, and People. Together with our employees, customers and partners, we fulfill the promise of science by creating value responsibly for a stronger, healthier business and society.

Living Our Values

We are working to make the future we envision a reality by living out our Mission Statement and our Values that guide us every day – courage, achievement, responsibility, respect, integrity, and transparency. As corporate responsibility is a source of inspiration and innovation for our products, operations and people, we enact our values by:

Helping our customers meet their own sustainability goals and commitments through our innovative products and services;

Making our own operations more sustainable; and

Lending our distinct expertise in areas where we can help make meaningful improvements in our communities.

A Responsibility – and an Opportunity

There are numerous global challenges today, from issues of access to health to climate change to clean water. Through our commitment to corporate responsibility, we are creating value for our business and key stakeholders by advancing environmental and social responsibility throughout our products, operations and people. It drives innovative solutions for our customers, supports a thriving culture and workplace for our employees, promotes a healthy environment, and delivers efficiency and excellence for our business.

As we look to tomorrow, we are focused on the vital issue of improving access for underserved populations. Working with our corporate colleagues at the interface of research tools, diagnostics and chemicals, we collaborate with customers, partners and communities to apply our expertise, core competencies and passion in order to improve lives worldwide.

This is a responsibility, and a business opportunity.

Strong Environmental, Social, and Governance Performance

True corporate responsibility entails maintaining a structure, policies, values, and decision-making processes that incorporate accountability, transparency, ethical behavior, respect for stakeholder interests, and the rule of law. Our approach fosters an environment that practices these principles, while balancing the authority and responsibility of decision makers, promoting fair representation, aligning the division’s needs with those of its stakeholders, and tracking performance to ensure accountability. In addition to achieving exceptional environmental and social responsibility performance, we strive to demonstrate outstanding governance and management system practices, which align with our mission and values.

Furthermore, transparency is the underlying element of our overall performance. Public disclosures and information regarding key programs and initiatives are provided throughout this website, as well as in the Merck KGaA Corporate Responsibility report. Previous reports of Merck are available here.

Goals & Commitments

As we re-imagine tomorrow, we have set a bold strategy focused on key goals for 2015 within our three core focus areas – Products, Operations, and People.

Re.Think

Future-Forward Products

Re.Focus

Streamlined Operations

Re.Commit

Inspired People

Strategic Goals

Increase Product SustainabilityAdvance science and innovation across the product life cycle to implement sustainable solutions for our customers.

2015 Targets

Drive product sustainability improvement in 10% of the product families we offer

Reduce greenhouse gas emissions, water use and waste by 10%, compared to 2006 baseline levels

Implement 3 new engagement and awareness programs

Approach

We combine our team’s ingenuity and passion with concepts of design for sustainability, life-cycle thinking and product stewardship to develop products that help our customers improve human health, while reducing environmental impacts and related costs.

We build upon the progress we have already made and re-focus on the next level of innovative ideas to further reduce the greenhouse gas emissions, water use and waste of our operations.

We leverage the foundation of our long-standing mission and commitment of our team to elevate and extend our positive impact with 3 new engagement and awareness programs, helping to strengthen our business and advance health and well-being worldwide.